The Social Media Monster

The Social Dilemma is an alarm-sounding Netflix documentary starring the brilliant minds behind the creation of the social media platforms that are ubiquitous today, such as Facebook, Google, and Pinterest. It’s a real-world, modern day Frankenstein-esque exposé revealing the dark evolution of social media and the fear and regret that the creators feel in the aftermath.

The featured techies like Tristan Harris, former design ethicist at Google, and Jeff Seibert, former executive at Twitter, are extremely transparent about the motivations of social media enterprises, the advanced technology driving their success, and the negative impact they believe they have on the world.

The film is eye-opening, with many interesting points made throughout. Of them, the notions that stood out to me most are:

• We are the product
• Social media uses human psychology against us
• Social media drives divisiveness

Social media is almost always free and for that reason nearly 4 billion people utilize these services worldwide (Statista, 2021). For many, myself included for a long time, the model of profitability for these platforms and how they are involved is imperceptible to them. The Social Dilemma reveals exactly how social media companies have become the richest in the world: people are the product.

“If you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product.” -Tristan Harris, The Social Dilemma

Essentially advertisers are paying these companies for our attention and time and when we spend hours on their applications we contribute to their massive and continual wealth. I have to admit, when I first learned this I was shocked and disappointed that I hadn’t come to this conclusion on my own.

But lots of people fail to realize this because, as the documentary expounds, social media uses our psychology against us to create illusions of reward and pleasure and perpetuates addictive behaviors without us knowing.

“So, we want to psychologically figure out how to manipulate you as fast as possible and then give you back that dopamine hit.” -Chamath Palihapitiya, The Social Dilemma

The most difficult part of this revelation is knowing that the founders and tech geniuses behind the birth of today’s social media were cognizant that they were profiting off of human psychological vulnerability and did not halt their operations or question the ethics until it was beyond their control.

Unfortunately, as a result of the monster that social media built, there are many repercussions. For instance, today’s youth are glued to their devices and aren’t developing healthy social skills. Also, rates of depression and anxiety are at new heights for young people because of a warped sense of identify, a desire for unattainable perfection, and a need for constant social approval.

The divisiveness caused by social media stood out to me as well. Learning about how social media algorithms create a sense of “us vs. them” mentality was fascinating. Basically, your social media feeds show you posts and ideas that are of interest to you, so you start to believe that everyone thinks like you and people who don’t are either crazy or your enemy. As evidenced by our latest presidential election, this type of formula may be the driving force behind the huge wedge between opposing political parties and potentially instigating extremist ideologies.

Social media’s contribution to the distortion of how we view ourselves is a growing issue among people of all ages, not just youths. It seems, as you become more active on social media, the harder it is to separate your curated self, from your real self. Up until very recently, I avoided social media because it made me feel as though I wasn’t portraying my genuine self to the world and I wasn’t experiencing the world in a real way.

For instance, I can recall recording special moments on my phone and sharing it on Facebook, instead of truly enjoying these moment in real-time. I abandoned social media for so long that I didn’t realize how it had evolved into something even worse. Today, I have cautiously chosen to reactivate my accounts, hoping to use it as a tool for good. This time around, thanks to films like The Social Dilemma, and my studies in social media, I feel knowledgeable enough to use it in a healthy way.

It’s true that social media has sophisticated AI on its side that is evolving and getting smarter by the minute. I agree with the argument from the film, that humans can’t compete with that. However, we can do a couple of things to help our species from succumbing to our own invention. The first is insisting that social media companies have some sort of regulations in place. If left unchecked, I do believe we will lose all control, far beyond what we are witnessing today. Second, we must take the time the educate ourselves and our young people on the detriments of social media. If we fail to do so, children won’t be able to cope with menial life tasks.

Social media has been a blessing in many ways. We can reach family and friends with ease, connect with like-minded people, and learn about things happening on the other side of the world. Still, the companies that offer these services, at the end of the day, are businesses that want to make a profit; therein lies the curse that has been unveiled in The Social Dilemma.

Sources

Orlowski, J. (Director). (2020). The Social Dilemma [Film]. Exposure Labs Productions.

Statista. (2021). Number of global social network users 2017–2025 (in billions). https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/